Round One to Obama... Barely

By Scott Cavanagh
Nothing quite spoils the event euphoria of a prize fight more than a draw. The same can be said for the results of last night's first presidential debate. We may have wanted the "Thrilla In Manilla," but what we got was more of tactical sparring session, with neither fighter scoring anything resembling a haymaker.

In fairness to the combatants, they did do more than spar, and there were plenty of signs that the rematch could be quite bloody.

Obama was clearly the more articulate and polished speaker, but he hardly dominated the affair and was shamefully vague (as was McCain) in his answers concerning the financial bailout.

While McCain was (not-surprisingly in my-book) stronger in the one-on-one exchanges than most pundits had predicted, he still spent much of his time hurling silly "gotcha" accusations at Obama regarding talking-point charges that he knows are baseless and silly. Obama did not vote to deauthorize funding for the troops in Iraq--he simply voted against one plan and for another. Obama never said that he would meet willy-nilly with foreign leaders; he simply stated that he would be willing to talk to anyone if the welfare of the United States was at stake. And yes the Surge was a tactic and not a strategy. The Surge is one tactic in Bush's overall war strategy. Maybe there is a reason McCain finished third from the bottom of his class at Navy.

When he stayed on substance and avoided lame attacks and old jokes (did you know he was not voted Miss Congeniality in the Senate?--guffaw, guffaw) McCain stood his ground well, although he seemed to lose his temper any time Obama made a sustained stand on something, and even interrupted him multiple times. Jim Lehrer seemed to be either unwilling to or uninterested in stopping it. In addition, McCain made a habit a smirking and laughing to himself during much of Obama's air time--something other candidates of both parties have really taken beatings for in the past.

Obama was respectful of McCain in return and that played well for the most part, but he did not take advantage of many opportunities that were virtually teed-up for him by his 72-year-old opponent. McCain's constant contention that any universal health care plan would take away patients' ability to make decisions with their doctors should have been countered with the fact that those decisions are now being made by insurance companies-- not doctors. He also could have really let McCain have it over his decrying a "wasteful" $3.9 million environmental research earmark on the very day the $25 million "Road to Nowhere" opened for business in Alaska.

Obama scored when pointing out the logical disconnect between McCain's concern over $18 billion in earmark spending and his apparent lack of concern over the $380 billion in additional corporate tax breaks he is currently proposing. I think Obama will also do himself a real favor by sticking to his guns and record on the Iraq War. He was against it from the beginning; he was right then and he is right now. To suddenly back down because we have managed to temporarily partition-off the warring parties with walls, tanks and bribes, does not make this trillion-dollar fiasco a success. If McCain wants to run on the Iraq War--let him.

Obama was solid as always, but I'm still not convinced he possesses anywhere near the public speaking/debate skills of either Clinton (William Jefferson) or Kennedy (John Fitzgerald). He is smart and measured, but he has yet to show me the ability to spin on a dime like Bubba and go from offense to defense effortlessly without losing his place and timing. McCain sees this and is trying to bully him. We need a knockout--like Clinton gave W's Daddy, Perot and Bob Dole. The next debate will not be about foreign policy. The K.O. will come then.
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Ladies and Gents... the Paulson Administration

By Scott Cavanagh
I knew he could do it... knew it all along. Just when people were starting to write him off as finished--a lame duck with no more catastrophic plans or pathetic cronies left to unleash on the country and its citizens--George W. Bush has given us one more for the history books.

Now the administration that has provided us with so many memories--from the worst attack in our history, to the drowning of New Orleans, the acceptance of torture, the outing of a CIA agent, domestic spying, preemptive endless war and mind-boggling budget deficits --has managed to oversee the end of the modern American financial system.

But this is not just about events--it's about people--special people, like Dick Cheney and Karl Rove; Scooter Libby and Alberto Gonzalez; Harriet Miers and Mike "Way to go Brownie" Brown. These are people we were supposed to trust because George W. Bush told us to. Oops!

Now Bush and his cronies--the very people who have preached the gospel of unfettered, unregulated, greed-is-good capitalism for 30 years--want us to entrust one of them with the sole stewardship of $700 billion of our money--no questions asked.

That's right, only weeks after both Bush and his latest co-commander (remember the Petraeus Administration?)--Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson--deemed the fundamentals of our economy "strong" and our markets "flexible and resilient," the administration has decided that not only are we staring over the abyss of the next Great Depression--we need to immediately adopt their plan for recovery--with Paulson serving as our financial Il Duce in some quasi-socialist economic fiefdom--or else.

They have steered the old Ford directly into the ditch and now they want us to hand them the keys to the family Cadillac--because only they know the way out of this mess. In the immortal words of John McEnroe--they CANNOT be serious.

We all understand that the collapse of many of our oldest and most respected financial institutions requires swift and decisive action. However, the idea that a virtually sight-unseen plan, provided by the very people who got us into this mess--one that gives one man unlimited power with virtually no oversight--is the only answer, is not only stupid and short-sighted, it comes right out of the same tired "our way or the highway" play book that the incompetents in the Bush administration and their buddies on Capitol Hill have been utilizing for eight years.

These are the same guys that shoved the Patriot Act down our throats without even giving members of Congress time to read it. Remember Saddam Hussein? We had to go to war against him too. It was going to be easy, pay for itself with oil revenue and be over in months. That was five years, $556 Billion and 4,200 dead Americans ago. Remember how we had to privatize Social Security by letting people play the stock market? How's that idea sound right about now?
(Heck, John McCain suggested in 2004 that some of those Social Security benefits be invested in the sub-prime mortgage market. How's that for foresight?) Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in a time of war--why not? Taxing the rich equally would be socialism. Universal health care? Well, that would be socialism as well. Now they are all for socialism, although the form they are proposing sounds a bit more like fascism.

It appears there is nothing that can stop this bailout now--so all that is left is for the few non-eunuch Democrats with any fight in them to band together with the handful of actual fiscal conservatives that still exist, to fight for a few basic principles of common sense, oversight and fairness in this process. This could be their historic moment. Do this right and save their retirements and the Boomers may well build them a statue.

There can be no extravagant compensation packages for CEO's. If they don't like the reasonable compensation offered, FIRE THEM--with two weeks pay--like the rest of us. If we are going to lend these obviously bad credit risks billions of dollars, we need to charge them the same "high-risk" interest rates they would have slapped on us. Why in the world would we not want a return on our money--considering we are going to give it all right back to them to gamble away again anyway? There can be no bailout "Czar" with the powers proposed for Paulson and his successor at Treasury. A powerful Secretary--yes--another all-powerful, infallible Grand Poohbah--please, no.

Those concessions are not too much to ask in return for what is left of our national "cash flow."

Now the current president is calling on the two potential future presidents to call off their campaigns and tend to the business of getting on board the bailout express. They may end up having no choice in the matter, but I can't help but envision a time only a few months from now, when W will be sitting back choking on a pretzel in Crawford, while either John McCain or Barack Obama will see a lifetime of hard work and noble dedication destroyed by a an inherited Bush shitstorm that will turn one of these good men into the next Herbert Hoover.
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Reviewing the Conventions...

By Scott Cavanagh
Summer walkabout has ended and the Bark is back. My thoughts on the political events of the past couple of weeks, starting with the Democratic Convention and ending with the Republicans:

The Democratic Convention:
The Clintons: Of course the media's idiotic first two days worth of ridiculous non-stories about "What will the Clintons do?" irked me to no end. What will the Clintons do? I could have told you that two months ago--they will give tremendous, incredibly articulate speeches that will bring the house down. The Clintons do what they always do--come through under incredible pressure for a party that has been trashing them for 18 months. Of course that is still not good enough for many Obama supporters, who are now complaining that the first woman to come within a whisker of the WH did not sufficiently criticize the second woman in that position enough in the first 48 hours after her announcement. That's ridiculous. Has Colin Powell or any other black Republicans trashed Obama? Of course not. Its about time for the Obama people to start worrying about themselves and statements like "the surge has worked beyond anyone's wildest dreams" and stop concentrating on whether or not the Clintons are going to save them. If they wanted Mommy to fight their battles for them, they should have had her at the top of the ticket to begin with. If so, they would not have to be wasting their time groveling in states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Be prepared, if Obama loses this election by a hair, they will blame it on the Clintons. If they win, they will say they did it despite them.

Biden:
Biden is the most qualified person in the country to be president. He has more political experience, life experience and ability to work effectively across the aisle than anyone else in the country and I thought his acceptance speech was excellent. Spending five years in a prison camp is hard to comprehend. Losing your young wife and daughter to a car wreck on Christmas Eve and being left to rebuild a shattered life and raise two sons on your own may be just as incomprehensible. I truly think this is a very special guy and always have. This was a great pick by Obama because it helped cover him on the experience question, and Joe is a team player that will never try to steal the spotlight from the candidate. Joe Biden has been in Washington for 30 years and is one of the three poorest Senators--that tells you all you need to know. He's not in it for the cash and never has been. That said, Obama would have been much better off with Hillary as far as winning the election is concerned. No way they lose together. I don't know if the logistics of such an arrangement could ever have been worked out though.

The Stadium Event:
(Prior to reviewing this event, I have a TV caveat I must bring up. One of the moments I've been waiting for since it became obvious that either Hillary or Barack would win the nomination, was the state roll call of delegates. I know I sound like a real political geek, but I freakin' love the conventions and have been watching them faithfully since I was a kid. My favorite time is when each state rep. says some little corny line about his state like "The great state of Ohio, home of Johnny Wad Holmes, Traci Lords, Charles Keating and Maurice Clarett casts its ballots for the next President of the United States... Larry Flynt!" This year, with the first African-American nominee in history having his name announced, it would be incredibly exciting. So what did they do? They moved that part to the mid-afternoon and just told us about it that evening. That was a real bummer, I wanted to hear that actually happen--its tradition and its cool and its better than a civics class.)

I still don't know if I liked the stadium idea or not. The GOP had already been getting some mileage out of portraying Obama as this "celebrity" candidate (something I had been worried about for months because of the press and Hollywood's undying devotion to him) so making this historic event look a little bit like the Super Bowl was a bit risky in my opinion. I think the whole night lacked intimacy, but that lack of intimacy was drowned out by the sheer joy and passion that the crowd produced. The high point of the night (prior to Obama) was the speech (covered mostly on the radio) by Congressman John Lewis of Georgia. Here was a man who was one of the ten speakers that addressed the crowd 45 years before in Washington with MLK. This man had been beaten senseless by southern policemen and attacked by dogs and here he was 45 years to-the-day later, talking to a wild, packed stadium of people from all walks of life, who had come together to give a black dude the nomination to be leader of the free world. Damn, what a freakin' country we live in. You could feel his passion as if it were your own. His pride was your pride. Very cool.

Al Gore is a wooden mannequin. I love the guy, but he has the charisma of a houseplant. Ditto John Kerry.

Then came Obama. Obviously, Obama is a great public speaker (although I still think Bubba is superior) but I thought some of his stump speeches leading up to the convention were starting to get off-message a bit and were lacking focus. I felt the same way at the beginning of his acceptance speech, but as he got to the meat of the matter and started spelling out the choices we have to make in the next few years, he really hit his stride and took off. Like John Kennedy and Bill Clinton before him, Obama is brilliant and that makes me happy. I want my president to be a brilliant student, and a quick thinker/talker, and charming and articulate. I don't care if I have a beer with him--I have my own freinds for that. Obama is special and that came through in the speech, as it does every time you listen to him for more than a sound bite. As far as his ability to win is concerned, I still think he has a tough road to travel and is anything but a shoe-in. Charles Barkley really hit it on the head when asked about Obama's chances, responding that no matter how many blacks and minorities vote for Barack, he cannot win without the support of at least a good portion of white America--and that is tricky. How many white people will say they are going to vote for Barack and then not do it when they get into the booth? If white people can trust a black man to be president and get over their fear, he will win. If not, it does not matter what he says or what he stands for.

John McCain is special too, but he has virtually sold his soul to the devil in the past few years. Like many former supporters of McCain, I had been hopeful that a GOP victory this fall would result in a moderate and sensible McCain--one that was free of the chains that made him have to pander to the wingnut section of the party. And lets face it, he had a case to make. Obama's resume is thin, whether those on the Left like to admit it or not. McCain was positioned nicely to say simply: "This guy was nothing more than a community organizer just a few short years ago, and his ENTIRE experience on the national stage consists of one term in the Senate--the majority of which has been spent running for President." That case alone, combined with his compelling life story, good relationship with the media and the bigot factor made McCain's campaign immediately viable--and more importantly acceptable--to a large swath of voters that Obama desperately needs. While scary, I had been feeling better about what America might look like under a President McCain if he were to pull out a victory. Then came Caribou Barbie and the convention and I started to remember who these guys really are.

The Republicans:
There were so many highlights to the GOP convention; I don't know where to start.

-It's good to know that we don't have any real problems in the country that are not caused by the "Elite Media" or the "Eastern Elites". It's particularly great to be told that by the billionaire Governor of Massachusetts. What the hell?

-I don't know about you guys, but I love to be lectured about homeland security by representatives of the administration that allowed 9/11. If I hear one more time that "Bush kept us safe" I will puke. Safe from what? A declining economy, endless war and a world that hates us? How safe did he keep New Orleans or Valerie Plame? Note to George: We've only been hit once--on YOUR watch!!

-While on the topic of W--was his via-satellite eight minutes sheer oratorical magic, or what? The couple of sentences that he got out without stumbling were great. I think there was something in there about the culture of life, or whatever. I think Laura's blank stare intro was even better. To look at those two and think that we were only a few hanging chads from avoiding all of this mess just really makes me think... that we are very stupid people.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN... JOE LIEBERMAN!!! The funniest thing I have ever witnessed at a convention--other than Marilyn Quayle's rousing oratory in '92.

All one has to do is listen to one night of Republican speakers and the hate is just overflowing. They hate the media, and people from the East Coast and people from the West Coast and non-believers and immigrants and teachers and lawyers (unless they are theirs) and liberals and unions and Muslims and environmentalists and Europeans. Their WHOLE game is fear and hatred. That is all is has ever been. And all of their "issues" are non-issues created to simply piss people off.

Think about it:

Guns: A total bullshit wedge issue. Nobody is trying to take away anyone's right to own a gun. Nobody has ever proposed anything that would limit hunting weapons or any legal gun ownership. It's a fake issue.

Gay Marriage: Another totally bogus issue. Not a single gay organization in a single state had any pro-gay marriage initiatives on any state ballots in 2004, yet it was the staple issue for Republicans all over the country. There were 12 states with anti-gay legislation placed on the ballot by religious wing nuts and GOP operatives. Their only purpose was to force the Dems running in those states to have to take a public stand on the issue. When they said they supported some kind of gay unions, they were called out in every church and got pilloried for it. When all 12 measures passed in all 12 states, the right wing groups bragged for months that they defeated the gay movement and such, when in fact, the poor gays had done nothing but watch the right shit on them again for no reason.

Taxes: This is and has always been bogus. The majority of Americans pay the vast majority of taxes in payroll taxes and fees. When calculating the way the "poor, put-upon rich" are always getting the shaft, the GOP always talks about income taxes and cries. Its a total ruse, and idiots and the supposedly "liberal" media allow them to get away with it decade after decade. The rich pay the lowest taxes they have ever paid--much lower than they paid under Eisenhower or Nixon, and they are still crying. They now control so much of the national wealth that the gap between rich and poor is the highest it's been since the Robber Baron days-- but that's not good enough for them.

Abortion: The lowest abortion rates in the country since the procedure became legal were achieved under Bill Clinton's regime, because they provided students with education and condoms. The states with the highest pregnancy rates in the country-- are ALL southern GOP strongholds. By the way, they also get the highest percentage of welfare and federal aid and have the fattest people, buy the most porn and get the most divorces. Who cries the most about these issues? Fat, redneck Republicans. What state has the lowest abortion and divorce rates? Massachusetts.

The Palin pick, in my estimation, may be the most cynical and pathetic maneuver to ever come down the pike. Not only is she COMPLETELY unqualified to be President, she is the most blatant partisan to ever grace a major party ticket. Somehow, in the blink of an eye, the GOP has managed to put an unqualified, religious, wing-nut creationist only a heartbeat away from the presidency--and we are not even allowed to ask her any questions!!

Sarah Palin is a woman that believes another woman that is raped or faces the prospect of dying from delivering a deformed baby should have to have that child--presumably because God says so. At the same time she applauds her pregnant (abstinence-only trained) teenage daughter for "choosing" to have her baby. That's nice that a well-to-do girl with a big stable family can make that "choice" that the Barracuda would take away from her and thousands of other girls through draconian legislation. Any woman that does not support a woman's right to choose not to die from a pregnancy makes me sick. Another president with a lack of empathy scares the crap out of me.

Sarah Palin's total experience prior to 18 months ago, was serving as mayor of a town one-fifth the size of Westerville. She won her two elections to that post in her hometown with vote totals of 984 and 887, respectively. It would be like being mayor of Obetz--but it would be Obetz... in Alaska! During this time the "reformer" (who spent her twenties competing in beauty contests and trying to be on ESPN) requested nearly 28 million dollars in earmarks for that little shithole town. She supported the "Bridge to Nowhere" until it became politically unpopular and now claims to have turned down that money, when in fact, she accepted the money from our pockets and redirected it to her own pet projects. Is Sarah Palin smart, or well educated? We don't know. Why? Because the GOP decided to set her up as this "victim of the media" before she was ever even announced. Now she is not even answering questions from the media. It is sooooo outrageous it makes my head want to explode!!

The GOP has been bitching for years about career women that put their jobs ahead of their family and so forth. Now they have the nerve to say they have no problem with a mother of five with a special needs infant and a pregnant daughter running for President. The hypocrisy is amazing. Speaking of hypocrisy: John McCain supported Roe V. Wade -- not anymore. John McCain was against the Bush tax cuts-- now he wants to make them permanent. John McCain said Pat Robertson was an agent of intolerance -- now he kisses his ass.

For weeks, McCain and virtually every Republican I know have been pounding on Obama's lack of experience and substance--and it was getting some traction. His seemingly sincere concern that the nation might be placing itself in the hands of a man with good intentions but a lack of experience was understandable. The Palin nomination trumps all of that and makes him out to be a hypocrite again. Sure, he's soooo concerned about the experience and qualification level of a self-made guy who became the top student at Harvard Law School, a successful community organizer, a three-term state representative in the mean streets of Chicago and a United States Senator. However a beauty contest contestant from Obetz Alaska is just fine and dandy -- as long as she likes prayer in school and totes a gun. No matter that McCain is three years OLDER than Ronald Reagan was when he took office -- not to mention six years removed from a serious cancer operation that gives survivors an average life expectancy of eight years--McCain is fine with Sarah. Hopefully, it will prove to be his last political move of any consequence.
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